Where does your individual donor fundraising stand?

If you're like most leaders of small nonprofits, you want to know where your fundraising stands as compared to other organizations your size. CiviCRM stores a wealth of data, but it might be time-consuming to search for it all. Even then, how will you know you're comparing data apples-to-apples with the rest of the sector?

The survey and extension

This is where the Individual Donor Benchmark Survey comes in. By asking standard questions of small nonprofits across the United States, the survey allows you to see how your organization stacks up against nationwide benchmarks, and you can compare your own results in subsequent years.

AGH Strategies is a sponsor of the project, and we produced a CiviCRM extension that calculates your fundraising data and presents it question-by-question for entering it into the survey. There are additional questions about your expenses, supporters, staff, and organizational background, but much of the survey is automatically done for you.

Get started

Go to your Manage Extensions page in CiviCRM.

Click Refresh, and once the list refreshes, go to the Add New tab.

Look for the extension named Individual Donor Benchmark Survey 2016

Follow the link to go to the report.
You'll need to select the financial types that you consider to be "donations" (as opposed to program revenue or grants), and all the questions will fill for you.

When you complete the survey, Third Space Studio will compile the responses into a report that you'll receive.

We started collaborating with them on the 2014 survey, and organizations who used it reported that they learned a lot by taking a summary view of their information. A couple of them even ran the report after the survey deadline had passed: they just valued the opportunity to see their results.